Time's Arrow, Part II

The story that began with Jean-Luc Picard finding Data's detached head in a cavern near San Francisco reaches its conclusion in the concluding episode. Some aliens from the planet Davidia have been using earth as a feeding ground and the eating seems to be good around San Francisco bay.

It's quite an adventure and part of the reason is that one of the most intellectually curious people in the history Samuel Langhorne Clemens or better known as Mark Twain overhears Data and Guinan conversing and knows this is important though he reaches the wrong conclusion.

Of course the Enterprise crew defeats the aliens and time resumes its normal course. Jerry Hardin does a wonderful job as Mark Twain. You really think it is Twain.

Sad to say though that most pessimistic of men never changed his attitude despite the glimpse into the distant future that he got in this episode. It was more than a glimpse, it was a grand tour courtesy of Counselor Troi.

Still seeing Jerry Hardin as Twain makes this TNG story worth a watch.

In part one, Data was beamed back to San Francisco in 1893 and he cannot get back to the Enterprise. But the crew are able to come up with some confusing way to join Data and they learn about the weird creatures that have come to Earth's past to kill people and harvest the energy in the victims' brains and spinal columns. Naturally they have to stop this as well as all return to the present. There is a slight glitch, however, as Mark Twain (yes, THAT Mark Twain) learns about their plans and threatens the timeline because of this.

I enjoyed part one more than part two simply because I didn't love the Mark Twain angle and I also thought the character was a bit too hammy. He wasn't terrible--I just didn't like this in the story. Worth seeing, however.

He was from the South. Why is he talking like cartoon coal miner?

The conclusion to the previous time travel episode.

This is an enjoyable finish to a pretty good story.

I prefer the cleverness of the story detail to the character moments. It does not generate much in the way of suspense or tension, as the pacing of the key plot details are quite slow. However when the situation is resolved I look back upon it as a cool time temporal concept that uses the passing time of time to great effect.

The characters are pretty good though, especially Captain Picard, Data, Guinan, Samuel Clements, and Jack London. How much the historical characters actually add to the episode other than padding that makes it all feel very literate and high-brow, is a matter of debate.

Patrick Stewart and Caryn Johnson are both great. Jerry Hardin is entertaining, but his voice starts to get a bit tiresome to me by the end, especially if you watch episodes parts 1 and 2 back to back. I do though like his observations on the idealistic Trek future society.

Riker and the others are fairly good also. The scenes when everyone pretends to be part of a theatrical troupe to humour a nosey landlady reminds me a lot of "The Ladykillers".

Visually it all work very well with some cool effects, set design, props, and costuming.

This second part was written by Jeri, who captured the essence of the first part. Of course, she had to wrangle a part for her son (Who would later become Vorick in Voyager) as the young reporter Twain is talking to in the teaser.

In fact, this teaser threw me for a loop, I had been expecting Twain to react differently. I had thought he was more of a progressive gent, but then again, he was acting on a perceived threat. And that is what made the characterization great.

Of course, Picard's away team is also acting on the same perceived threat, but with Landladies and crooked policemen (Played by William Boyett of "The Big Goodbye") interfering, it was harder for their little Shakespearean Acting Troop. But the meat of this story is all laid out here, where Data's history coincides with the Away Team's history, and both coincide to 1893's "Cholera Epidemic". This part of the story moves a lot more rapidly, as it is less Discovery and more Solution. And of course, includes Picard's very first meeting with Guinan.

Meanwhile, Twain is investigating Data, so eventually all blazes get let loose when all parties involved including the Dividia-II aliens meet up in the Mining Shaft. It's kind of an Er, "Explosive" situation. Which gives Twain a unique opportunity to meet a "were-Worf" I think such "time shifts" would drive normal people mad.

But the idea was to solve this conundrum and have fun at the same time, and it was a success in that respect. As a Fan of both Twain and Trek I was tickled. These two episodes speak for themselves, this is again the Heart of Trek- Prevent Alien Incursions, and Have Fun with Historical Figures.